


Turning Tables

by rosamund_mary



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-07 00:44:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3154469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosamund_mary/pseuds/rosamund_mary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis needs to chill. Zayn tells him he works too hard, stresses too much and he needs to relax. Except the one time he does he accidentally messages an attractive stranger a bubble bath selfie. It's almost as if the universe wants him to implode.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Turning Tables

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Nothing is real and I do not know these people. Please do not share with anyone who possibly would, because that would be terrible.

“This is terrible. I hate it, this will never do. Scrap the entire thing and start over.” 

Louis inhaled deeply and counted to five in his head in order to keep from exploding into a million pieces all over the newly decorated room and his client. Liam, the extraordinary people pleaser that he is, intervenes before Louis causes bodily harm to a certain hypercritical homeowner. 

“I assure you that we delivered your design exactly as we agreed six weeks ago,” Liam explained. Thank God for Liam, really. Without him Louis would not be able to stomach designing for celebrities and their every fickle whim. While his talent was up to par, his level for tolerating bullshit was considerably low. 

“Well that was six weeks ago, I’ve changed my mind. Might as well sell the house and start over on a blank slate. I’ve heard that shag carpet is making a comeback.” The C-list ‘celebrity’ star of some trashy reality drama that Louis can’t be arsed to remember starts to ramble utter nonsense and Louis is completely over it. Liam opens his ipad and begins to type out notes and draw diagrams while Louis quietly excuses himself. It’s been a long day.

He walked briskly down the busy streets towards his office, texting his colleague and best friend.

Please drown me in several thousand liters of eggshell paint and shag carpet. Then at least my death will be as painful as my client’s ideas. 

He didn’t have to wait long until his phone signaled a response. 

_You need to relax mate. Go take a bubble bath or something._

Louis scoffed at his friend's unwillingness to let him complain. _Zayn, one does not simply ‘relax’._

 _You’re ridiculous, Louis. Go home._ Louis could practically hear Zayn's eyes rolling up towards his perfectly styled hair. Bastard.

Louis scrubbed a hand across his face before he navigated the busy London streets towards the underground. He sent a text off to Liam thanking him for handling the client and letting him know that he was taking the afternoon off. 

The second that he was through the front door of his flat Louis crashed onto the couch and instantly fell asleep. When he woke it was to a considerably darker room and several notifications from Liam, one from his mum and one from the client whom he specifically ignored. 

Louis rubbed his bleary eyes before he noticed a small paper bag on a note on his kitchen counter. He switched on the side table lamp and padded over to investigate.

_Tried to bring you take away but you were down for the count. Pad Thai is in the fridge, maybe this will help you relax! - Zayn xx_

_PS Thank me later, I’m out with Liam for the night! x_

Zayn must have let himself in with the spare key. They each had one for the other’s flat for convenience sake and this was another perk of having beautiful and wonderful friends.

His stomach growled angrily at the thought of the take away in the fridge but Louis’s curiosity spiked at the small gift bag that smelled strongly of roses. Inside he found a candle, a bottle of wine and two different softball sized bath fizzies. 

“Zayn you magnificent, sappy angel,” Louis moaned out loud to his empty flat. 

-

The hot water poured from the faucet and Louis dropped one of the heart shaped fizzies into the bath. Suds and bubbles and sweet smelling roses erupted in the tub and Louis inhaled deeply, letting the aroma settle around him. 

He had already devoured his pad thai and half the bottle of wine while he talked with Liam about the client’s newest ideas. Louis really hoped that Zayn’s bubble bath idea worked, for the sake of his own sanity.

He climbed into the tub, shutting off the tap and bringing his wine glass to his lips once more. Adele was serenading him from the speakers on the vanity and Louis absolutely needed this. 

His phone pinged with a notification and Louis slide his thumb across the screen and brought up the little yellow ghost app. Liam had signed them all up for Snapchat as a way to gripe about the clients without the incriminating evidence sticking around. He opened the Snapchat to reveal Liam and Zayn making funny faces at the camera with Liam's phone showing the caller ID of the ridiculous client. The call time was at 48 minutes and the caption read _'Romantic' triple date night!_

Louis let out a bark of laughter and tapped the button to reply. Mostly he would just receive Snapchats, never bothering to use the camera function himself. Louis angled his camera towards the water and snapped a message for Zayn. 

_Thank you for the bath!_

Louis tapped out Zayn’s username he sent it away, giggling to himself. He took another sip of wine and felt himself truly unwind for the first time in weeks.

His phone buzzed instantly and Louis checked to see a reply from Zayn.

He lazily held onto the red square and nearly dropped his phone into the suds. Instead of Zayn he was met with a gorgeous man filling his tiny screen, the caption reading _'I definitely should be thanking_ you _!'_

“You’re not Zayn!” He screamed to his phone. He quickly took a shot covering the camera and captioned the black screen as such.

The reply was instant again, this time showing the attractive man from before accompanied by grinning blonde man. 

_Nope, I’m Harry! Who’re you?_

Louis’s heartbeat raced and he took a picture of his nearly empty wine glass. _'Incredibly embarrassed, to start with,'_ the caption read. 

His phone buzzed again, this time with a blurry picture Harry, an over-exaggerated wink on his gorgeous face. 

_Don’t be, you have nice legs._

Louis flushed even though no one could actually see him. He considered briefly why he was even still replying and blamed it on the wine. He used the front facing camera to take his next picture and labeled it. _'Well you have a nice face, Harry. I’m Louis.'_

The message said it had been opened but this time there was no reply. Louis felt an unexplained disappointment as his strange bathtub rendezvous seemed to have come to an end. He briefly wished that the pictures were saved so he could see the pretty green eyes and dimples once more. Louis locked his phone and tossed it on the bath mat, determined to enjoy the rest of his bath. 

Not until much later when Louis was curled up in his bed and about to fall asleep did his phone buzz with a new Snap notification. He opened it instantly and held it to reveal an obviously drunk Harry grinning at the camera. Followed by several shots of a the blonde man and Harry making rude gestures. The very last picture in the slideshow was Harry's own legs the showed up his toned thighs and calves. This one had a winking emoji as well as a caption.

_Show u mine, show me urs, yah Louis?x_

Louis flushed again and grinned to himself. He flipped the camera around and smirked into the screen. _'Buy me dinner first at least, Harold.'_

The next reply was too blurry to see clearly but it was obviously Harry sans shirt with a phone number included in his caption.

_Cheeky! Text me? x_

The countdown had 8 seconds left and Louis panicked. He thankfully had enough sense to screenshot the picture before it disappeared. Well that was certainly an interesting development. 

-

Zayn, Liam and Louis sat curled together on the big leather sofa in Liam’s living room with a bowl of popcorn between them. The title menu of The Dark Knight rolled in a loop, utterly forgotten as Louis recounted the great Snapchat adventure of Last Night’s Bath. 

“And then I get a phone number, of all things! _A phone number!_ He hasn’t sent me another message since!” Louis whined as he flopped over Liam and Zayn’s laps dramatically. 

“Well to be quite fair, it’s only one in the afternoon on a Saturday and the lad is probably hungover,” Liam quipped.

Zayn rolls his eyes and pushes Louis up to grab the popcorn from spilling. “Why don’t you text him then?”

“Just what do you propose I say, pray tell? _‘Hi, remember me I accidentally assaulted you with my bath pictures, wanna grab a drink?’_ ” 

Zayn mulls it over for a second. “Well, yeah. Maybe don’t mention assault but that’s the general idea.” 

Liam nods his agreement and Louis groaned. “Well if he really wanted to see me he could send another Snap...” Louis grumbled into the blanket covering Liam’s knees. “Why are boys so awful, Liam?” 

“For fuck’s sake, Lou,” Zayn groaned loudly and reached over Liam to snatch Louis’s phone from the coffee table. Before Louis could object Zayn snapped a picture of him curled into the blanket and sent it off to Harry. 

“ZAYN! What was that?! What did that say!?” Louis shouted and grabbed for the phone in Zayn’s hand. 

“Just doing what you were too chicken to do, mate.” Zayn patted his shoulder and handed the phone back without a fight. Louis looked at the app just in time to watch the red arrow turn white, indicating that Harry had read the message. 

Several things then happened very quickly. He received a “screenshot!” notification and his squeak of indignation was enough to make Zayn laugh out loud. 

Liam quirked an eyebrow at the two of them. “What did you send, Zayn?” 

Louis’s phone was then ringing with an unknown number and Zayn’s laughed unabashed. “I sent him Lou’s number!” he managed to wheeze between his giggles.

Meanwhile Louis’s face was a very brilliant shade of crimson and the phone still buzzing. 

“Answer it, Lou!” Zayn shouted and made another grab for the phone and Louis hit _‘accept call’_ before he could take it.

“Hello!?” Louis answered maniacally. “Shut up, Zayn I will murder you so help me-”

A deep laugh in his ear only served to elevate Louis’s heart rate by another thirty points.

“Is this a bad time? Because I can call back later-”

“No!” Louis shouted. “I mean... erm... hi?”

Harry chuckled again and the sound made something bubble happily in Louis’s chest.

“Hi, Louis. It’s nice to put a sound to your face.” Harry’s voice was a low and steady hum and Louis’s mind instantly wandered in one thousand inappropriate directions.

“Quite the same, Harold. Especially under the ... erm, _unique_ circumstance of our acquaintance.”

“Well don’t know ‘bout you but I get random pictures of attractive blokes in the tub all the time.”

Louis could feel the flush creeping up his neck. “Real charmer, you are.”

“I’ve been told that once or twice.” 

There was a lapse in the conversation and Zayn was wiggling his eyebrows. Louis threw him the bird and Liam tried to ignore them both in favor of the Batman movie that had restarted itself on screen.

“Erm, hey,” Louis said nervously. He stood from the couch to pace around the living room floor. “I know that this really is strange but I was wondering if maybe you’d like to get a drink with me? I know you don’t know me and I could be a murderer so like we could meet at the pub or something and I could bring my mates, if you want and-”

“Louis, I’d love to have a drink with you!” Harry broke into Louis’s nervous rant.

“Yeah?” Louis’ breathless reply into the receiver is softer than he intended. 

“Yeah I think I would," Harry spoke with confidence.

Louis’s heart absolutely _did not_ swell. He absolutely _was not_ grinning. He was _absolutely_ in trouble

-

Louis sat at the bar in the restaurant nursing the last few sips of his beer. He pulled the phone closer to his ear and glanced back towards the front door. "Zayn this is stupid he’s 20 minutes late and I’m sitting at this bar by myself. I’ve been stood up and he’s probably laughing at me right now."

He could hear Zayn's tone of voice change and the sympathetic sigh that went along with it. "I’m sorry mate. It was worth a shot. Come over to ours? Liam’s got some kind of thing cooking I think."

"Yeah, I guess that sounds nice. Better than me wallowing in my mortification. See ya soon, then." Louis throws a bill down for his now empty drink and moves to hop off the barstool, only to collide with a solid structure blocking his escape.

“Oops, I’m so sorry, I was running late...” The man said, and then Louis locked onto his face. He watched familiar green eyes widen slightly in recognition.

“Hi, Harry.” Louis smiled shyly but kept his eyes on the man's face.

Harry grinned like the Cheshire cat.

-

“Li, check my phone and see if Louis texted. He said he was on his way an hour ago” Zayn called from the kitchen. 

Liam picked up Zayn’s phone from the couch and slid open a new Snapchat from Louis.

The picture showed a handsome dimpled face squashed up next to Louis’ familiar grin.

_Change of plans, don’t wait up! ;) xx_

Liam let the countdown expire and bit his lip with a smile. “Nah I think he’ll be a bit busy tonight after all.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still completely at a loss of how exactly I ended up here. The inner workings of accidentally sending Snapchats to the wrong person are taken to great liberties here so don't think about it too hard.
> 
> The title is from an Adele song. She's a wonderful romantic influence and I'm sure is a lovely lady. The bath bombs Zayn gifts to Louis are Tisty Tosty and completley wonderful. 10/10 would recommend. However, I do not advise sending nude leg snaps to strangers unless they are Harry Styles. 
> 
> Until next time? x


End file.
